Volta Metals Ltd. (CSE: VLTA | FSE: D0W) is a critical mineral exploration company focused on rare earths, gallium, lithium, cesium, and tantalum, with projects in Ontario, Canada. On February 23, 2026, the Company reported a major resource expansion at its Springer Rare Earth Element deposit near Sturgeon Falls, approximately one hour east of Sudbury, Ontario along the Trans-Canada Highway.“It's very exciting. It exceeded our expectations, to be honest,” Kerem Usenmez, President, CEO, and Director of Volta Metals Ltd., said in an interview with InvestorNews host Tracy Hughes.“What's exciting also is that it's still open and we are drilling. We're hitting more. So, I think it's going to get even bigger, but we're already in the Top 10 and getting better and better every day.”Hughes asked what “Top 10” meant in practical terms. “Basically, if I understand properly, is the Springer project in the ‘Top 10 Rare Earth Deposits in North America’? Is that correct?”“That is correct, yes,” Usenmez replied. “It got into a new scale. It really is incredible — 176 million tonnes of rare earth mineralization, on surface. It's very, very exciting.”The updated Mineral Resource Estimate, effective December 31, 2025, reports 56.6 million tonnes in the Indicated category at 0.70% TREO and 119.5 million tonnes in the Inferred category at 0.58% TREO. According to the Company, the deposit now ranks among the top 10 largest rare earth deposits in North America based on publicly available Indicated and Inferred mineral resource tonnage for North American rare earth projects listed in the S&P Global Market Intelligence database, 2025.The Company reported a 1,248% increase in Indicated Resources to 56.6Mt at 0.70% TREO, including a near-surface high-grade core of 11.5Mt at 1.10% TREO, and an 841% expansion in Inferred Resources to 119.5Mt at 0.58% TREO, including a near-surface high-grade core of 3Mt at 1.16% TREO. Additional contained rare earth oxides were added at an estimated discovery cost of C$0.02 per tonne of Indicated Resource.Hughes noted that the project ranks number seven and pointed to infrastructure as a key advantage. Usenmez agreed. “Fifty minutes away from Sudbury through the Trans-Canada Highway. We're just outside of Sturgeon Falls. Have two hydro power dams literally just outside of our claims, and one of them is powered by First Nations.“So this project will be powered not only with staff but literally the power because the power lines go through the property. We have all the supplies we need within 68 km, including Trans-Canada Highway and railway station.”According to the Company’s disclosure, the deposit is approximately 70 km east of Sudbury and 15 km north of Sturgeon Falls. It is accessible via Highway 64, with proximity to the Crystal Falls and Sturgeon Falls hydroelectric dams, hydroelectric power lines, a natural gas pipeline, and the Canadian National Railway line. A high-voltage transmission line runs through the project’s claims and is expected to source power from the Crystal Falls hydroelectric dam.On drilling results, Usenmez said, “Our initial drilling came back with — well, we first drilled twice as much as we anticipated, or planned for, because we were still in mineralization. It kept going, etc. So having holes, not once, more than once, from top to bottom mineralized, and at the end still high-grade mineralization — that's really what else can you hope for?“So that helped, and that showed us the shape is changing. It's getting bigger and it is still open. That's why we are drilling right now. But the intercepts we have are exceptional — rare earth mineralization, very high grade. In some cases, the premium magnets that you want — magnet minerals — but also the gallium. So very, very good results.”Hughes referenced the “core four” rare earth elements — praseodymium, neodymium, dysprosium and terbium — and asked about their significance.

“Drill hole number 15: we hit from surface 300 m, 2.55% rare earths,” Tom Drivas said, describing what he called “very exciting results” from diamond drilling at the Ultra Hard Rock carbonatite target in Goiás, Brazil.Drivas, CEO and Director of Appia Rare Earths & Uranium Corp. (CSE: API | OTCQB: APAAF), said the company drilled 26 holes totaling 7,347.1 metres, with results announced from 12 of them and additional assays pending. “That’s very exciting — very unusual that you drill a hole for 300 m. The hole ended up in mineralization,” he said.He detailed the intercepts: “The last 16 m of the hole has 5.2% total rare earth oxides. From 2 m to 99 m we get 4.42% total rare earth oxide. From 93 m to 99 m, about 6 meters, 13.30%.” The highlight interval, he added, was “about 1.7 m at around 95–97 meters depth for 14.27% total rare earth oxides.” He translated the figure for context: “That basically translates, for people who are not familiar with percentages, 142,700 ppm — parts per million — total rare earth oxides.”Drivas also cited magnet rare earth content within the interval. “In terms of magnet rare earths like neodymium praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium, we’ve got 23,235 parts per million, which is basically 2.3%. So very exciting.”According to the company’s February 24, 2026 news release, preliminary assay results identified significant intervals of Total Rare Earth Oxide (TREO) and Magnet Rare Earth Oxide (MREO), with 13 drill holes still pending. The release states that mineralization is open at depth and reappears to the northeast, and that average uranium and thorium values are 7.46 ppm and 66.48 ppm, respectively.Drivas said the latest program builds on earlier drilling. “We drilled about a year, year and a half ago — we drilled three holes from zero to 150 m depth and all three holes were mineralized. Now with this drilling program, we went down to 300 meters and the system is still open.”He described two styles of mineralization at the project. “We’ve got ionic clay on surface — like the first 10–20 meters — high-grade ionic clay type mineralization. But underneath that is carbonatite rocks — hard rock — and that’s also rich in rare earths.”He emphasized the relevance of carbonatite-hosted rare earth deposits. “Two of the biggest mines outside of China that produce rare earths — Lynas and MP Materials — are rare earth extractable from carbonatite. So it’s basically a similar situation that we have there.”Appia holds a 25% interest in the Ultra Hard Rock and Ultra IAC Projects, totaling 42,932.24 hectares in Goiás. Under a previously announced agreement, Ultra is obligated to acquire Appia’s 25% interest in exchange for a 25% equity interest in Ultra once a prefeasibility study has been prepared for the Ultra IAC project and a mineral resource estimate has been prepared for the Ultra Hard Rock project.“We now drilled 29 holes,” Drivas said. “I think after this the plan would be to put a 43-101 resource on the carbonatite mineralization, and obviously we want to put a resource on the ionic clay, and also do a PFS — a pre-feasibility — on the ionic clay. Our plan is to do all this this year.”Drilling at the ionic clay target is ongoing. “We’ve got two drills. We’re going to bring another two drills in the next couple of weeks and we’re planning to drill between now and June this year,” he said. The plan calls for approximately 952 reverse circulation holes of 15 to 20 metres each, in addition to 300 to 500 auger and exploration holes over the coming months.“In terms of valuation, we feel that Appia is trading at a fraction — maybe 10% — of what comparable other companies in the space are trading,” Drivas said. “Appia is probably the only company that I know that has three unique rare earth projects in Saskatchewan, in Ontario, in Brazil. And in addition to that we have uranium projects in Ontario and Saskatchewan.”To read the full column, go to: https://bit.ly/4kTeaB3

American Tungsten Corp. (CSE: TUNG) (OTCQB: TUNGF) is advancing the historic IMA Mine Project in Idaho toward commercial production, positioning itself to address critical metal scarcity in North America. The company holds an exclusive option to acquire full ownership of the IMA Mine, subject to a 2% royalty, and has expanded its land position with 113 additional federal claims covering nearly 2,000 acres. The IMA Mine is a past-producing underground tungsten operation on private-patented land, historically producing approximately 199,449 MTUs of WO₃ between 1945 and 1957.“About 31 ft at 0.48% tungsten oxide (WO₃) and then you’ve got 1.84 oz/ton silver,” Ali Haji, CEO and director of American Tungsten Corp. (CSE: TUNG) (OTCQB: TUNGF), said in an interview with InvestorNews.com host Tracy Hughes, referring to results released February 10, 2026. He continued: “We’ve got 11 ft grading at 1% and then 2.05 oz/ton silver. 16.3 ft at 0.54% with 1.79 oz/ton silver.”The February 10 news release reported 31 feet grading 0.48% WO₃ and 1.84 oz/t Ag in hole AT25-01; 11.1 feet grading 1.08% WO₃ and 2.05 oz/t Ag in hole AT25-02; and 16.3 feet grading 0.54% WO₃ and 1.79 oz/t Ag in hole AT25-03. The company stated that all initial drillholes intersected significant mineralized quartz veins consistent with projections of the No.5 and No.7 vein systems.Haji said the mineralization reflects the geology of the system. “It’s a moly porphyry with tungsten-silver-rich veins running through it,” he said. “With silver running where it is and the price of molybdenum also climbing, it’s a great sort of position to be.” He added: “Not only do we have some of the highest-grade tungsten, but now we’ve got silver and moly to help offset our opex and hedge us against any decline in pricing for tungsten as well.”On timing, Haji drew a distinction between initial sales and formal production status. “Production—when a mining company says they’re in production—they’ve had two consecutive quarters of production and revenue,” he said. “I have committed to being the first company to have product sale this year.” He added: “Commercial production will occur in 2027, but first product sale will certainly happen this year.”Haji described the IMA Mine as “the fourth largest producer of tungsten up until about the late ’50s,” noting that “over $400 million” has been spent on the property by prior operators through 2010, with more than 57,000 feet drilled historically. “We have done about 6,000 ft on the project. Now we will complete 18,000 ft in our Phase 1 drilling program,” he said. The Phase 1 program includes drilling from multiple underground levels, with additional holes planned.The company’s stated objective is to define a compliant mineral resource. “Our intent is to de-risk via delineating and twinning the existing exploration program to come up with a resource that we believe to be commercially viable,” Haji said. “We’ve got to get it to a 43-101 compliant state.” He said recent channel and rock chip sampling returned higher results than historic sampling conducted between 1979 and 1982. “We’ve got well in excess of 1% tungsten, about 2.79 oz silver,” he said, attributing improved results to advances in assay techniques and technology.In terms of corporate structure, Haji said the company has “about 49 million shares out,” describing the capital structure as “still very, very tight for a junior that has a line of sight on perhaps revenue at the end of this year.” He said the company completed “two financings for a total of $25 million in the last six months with no warrants,” adding, “There is no overhang from any warrants.” According to Haji, approximately 15% of shareholders are institutional, with participation from funds in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Australia and the United States, alongside roughly 7,400 U.S. retail shareholders and a similar number in Canada.

Antimony Resources Corp. (CSE: ATMY) (OTCQB: ATMYF) (FSE: K8J0) is an exploration and development company focused exclusively on antimony. The Company’s management team possesses extensive experience in financing, exploration, development and mining, and is focused on becoming a significant North American producer of antimony.“Antimony is the new tungsten—everybody’s talking about antimony,” Tracy Hughes said in an interview with Jim Atkinson, the company’s CEO and Director, asking why the metal has recently escalated as a top-priority critical mineral.“I think people have started to realize how important it is in so many different aspects—not only on the defense and military side of things, but also as an industrial metal,” Mr. Atkinson said. “Also, people are noticing the fact that the price has shot up from, let’s say, $12,000 a metric ton to almost $60,000 a metric ton. There’s nothing like a price spike to get people interested.”From a defense perspective, he added, “If you don’t have antimony, it really restricts your military in many ways.” He cited its use in munitions, as a flame retardant for military materials, and in specialized applications such as night vision goggles. “The combination of the price spike and the realization of importance has brought attention,” he said, adding that China’s December 2024 restriction on antimony exports, and its current export licensing regime, had further intensified interest. “Those three things—the realization, the geopolitical side, and the price spike—have brought it to the forefront.”Mr. Atkinson previously ran a producing antimony mine, Lake George Antimony. In a February 17, 2026 news release, the company announced it had expanded and outlined further massive antimony-bearing stibnite mineralization at the Marcus (West) Zone at its Bald Hill project.“We discovered a new mineralized zone that’s never been seen before,” Mr. Atkinson said. The discovery was made while constructing a drill road on the west side of the property. “The excavator dug it up and they looked at it—lo and behold, it had stibnite in it.” The zone, named the Marcus Zone after the prospector who first broke it open, has been exposed over approximately 50 to 75 meters. “It’s a brand-new area of mineralization with very spectacular looking stibnite mineralization—stibnite being the mineral that contains antimony,” he said. “Because of the discovery we moved one of our drills there to do discovery drilling.”According to the company, trenching has expanded the area of mineralization at the Marcus (West) Zone, and up to six shallow drill holes are proposed to test the zone at depths between 30 and 50 meters. The 2026 exploration program is being carried out in conjunction with a 10,000-meter definition drilling program on the Main Zone, and a second drill is being added.“We’re trying to do as much as we can at the same time,” Mr. Atkinson said of the Bald Hill project, describing efforts to compress timelines toward a permit application. Work has begun on background environmental studies and stakeholder consultations, alongside technical gap analysis covering mining method and metallurgy. A hydrogeological study has been initiated, and metallurgical testing is underway, with results expected within about a month. “The goal is a permit application to the New Brunswick government by the end of 2026 or early 2027,” he said, noting discussions with the provincial government, the Department of Indigenous Affairs, First Nations, and the local municipality.To support a resource calculation, the company is conducting definition drilling on a grid with maximum 50-meter spacing. “To calculate a resource you need very closely spaced data points—drill hole intersections,” Mr. Atkinson said. “That allows engineers to confidently connect intersections and determine continuity.” To read the full column, go to: https://bit.ly/46cMpNM

Nord Precious Metals Mining Inc. (TSXV: NTH) (OTCQB: CCWOF) operates TTL Laboratories, the only permitted high-grade milling facility in the historic Cobalt Camp of Ontario, where the company has established an integrated position connecting high-grade silver discovery with strategic metals recovery operations. Its flagship Castle property encompasses 58 square kilometres of exploration ground and the past-producing Castle Mine, complemented by the Castle East discovery, which delineated 7.56 million ounces of silver in a now historical inferred resource grading 8,582 g/t Ag.“What we’re trying to do here, Tracy, is actually going into production,” Frank Basa, CEO and Chairman of Nord Precious Metals Mining Inc. (TSXV: NTH) (OTCQB: CCWOF), said in an interview with InvestorNews.com host Tracy Hughes.Basa pointed to a regulatory shift in Ontario. “In Ontario, as of last year, they came out with a thing called a recovery permit, which really simplifies juniors like us to go into production,” he said. The company had initially targeted production from a smaller high-grade tailings deposit estimated at “maybe about half a million ounces of silver,” but a new acquisition has changed the scale.“There’s—on the acquisition we’re trying to do—there’s a NI 43-101 which has 2.9 million ounces,” Basa said, referring to a historical resource estimate on tailings in the Gowganda area.According to Nord’s January 13, 2026, news release, the acquired leases contain a historical indicated resource of 1,940,000 tonnes grading 47.5 g/t silver, yielding approximately 2,960,000 ounces of silver, with a 1981 study concluding potential silver recovery of 82.3% through grinding and conventional leaching. The company cautions that the resource is historical in nature and not treated as current.“They did a lot of metallurgical work on it and they have about 82% recovery on it, which is excellent,” Basa said. “So it’s a large tail pond, and it sits on some of the best ground in the area.”The acquisition consolidates Nord’s position in the Gowganda Silver Camp, approximately 125 kilometres northeast of Sudbury and adjacent to Nord’s existing Castle leases. The Gowganda Camp produced over 60 million ounces of silver and 1.3 million pounds of cobalt between 1909 and 1989, while the broader Cobalt-Gowganda-Silver Centre district produced approximately 550 million ounces of silver and 26 million pounds of cobalt between 1904 and 1989.“This whole area where we are—it’s actually part of the Gowganda camp, which is part of the town of Cobalt,” Basa said. “There is a lot of cobalt here, but it was primarily mined for silver.” He added that in the last century the camp “had the highest silver production globally for many, many years.”Basa said the company plans to build “one plant to treat all the material,” with TTL Laboratories serving as a district processing hub. The January 13 release states that TTL has previously produced a 1,000-ounce silver bar from Cobalt Camp material and has been metallurgically validated for processing historic tailings. “TTL has poured silver before, and we have the bar to prove it,” Basa said in the release.The recovery permit framework is central to the company’s timeline. “This recovery permit that the province created will shorten our timeline, gets rid of all the red tape, and then we could probably go into production,” Basa said. He said the company is targeting activity “probably later this year,” adding that discussions with the Ministry have included requests for modifications to accommodate a larger-scale processing plan.Nord’s integrated strategy includes recovery of cobalt, copper and nickel alongside silver. “We’re going to recover all those,” Basa said, describing cobalt as the longer-term value driver. To read the full column, go to: https://investornews.com/gold-silver-...

A junior miner in Arizona says it has no intention of waiting on the next drill hole.“Why not do that in the mining industry?” John Carter, CEO and director of Silver Bullet Mines Corp. (TSXV: SBMI) (OTCQB: SBMCF), said in an interview with InvestorNews.com host Tracy Hughes, referring to the aviation sector’s hub-and-spoke model. Silver Bullet Mines Corp. describes itself as “a mining company focused on acquisition, exploration, development, and operation of precious metal properties in North America.”Hughes began by referencing the company’s recent acquisition announcement and Carter’s long-stated strategy. Carter said he believed a hub-and-spoke structure allows a mining company “to best utilize the amount of money it has available in order for it to advance its projects and therefore protecting its shareholders.” He compared the approach to major airline hubs—“Dallas–Fort Worth, Chicago, New York, Atlanta. They feed things into the hub and then distribute everything from the hub.” His conclusion: “Well, why not do that in the mining industry?”In Gila County, Arizona, where Carter said “historically there’s been over 600 mines,” the company’s mill and assay facility function as the “hub.” Around it, he said, are “10 under our control that we have within a 30-mile radius.” The structure, he argued, provides speed. “Take it in the morning, have our assays back in the afternoon,” he said, describing how samples can be run internally rather than sent out for weeks. “Go out and take a ton or five and put that through our mill and run it to determine recoveries, metallurgical data that we need.”Carter said the model allows the company to screen more properties than it ultimately acquires. “Not all of them pass muster with what we have,” he said. The criteria, he added, are specific: “It has to be within a certain area, it has to be a certain grade, it has to be a certain commodity, and it has to be able to be recovered in our mill.”Hughes noted that the company’s name can lead to confusion. “I think one misconception people have is that Silver Bullet Mines is just silver, but you’re actually silver, gold and copper.” Carter confirmed that the mill currently processes gravity-recoverable metals and that expansion is underway. “We’re going to double the capacity of our mill and we’re going to add in a circuit so we can start to recover some of those other minerals that we’re missing right now,” he said. “Engineering is being done as we speak.”On February 5, 2026, Silver Bullet Mines Corp. (TSXV: SBMI) (OTCQB: SBMCF) announced it had acquired the Columbia Mine and the Gold Queen Mine in Gila County, Arizona, less than 30 miles from its mill in Globe. The company said the properties consist of twelve BLM mineral claims previously held by Phelps Dodge Corporation and host multiple past-producing copper, gold and silver mines. The acquisition price was described as a small cash payment, with “no shares or any form of royalty” involved.Carter described the assets as “very well-developed copper mines” with “historic resources on it—not compliant 43-101—but historic resources that have a great deal of potential.” He said the company had sought the properties for more than a decade. “Now, the opportunity came along for us to pick it up at a reasonable price, and our cost—$2,400 a year to pay the taxes on it. That’s it.”The company said it has reviewed material from the mines at its mill and determined it can be processed for gold, silver and copper recovery. It is preparing access and evaluating stockpiles for possible shipment, and it said a direct ship ore (DSO) contract is in place subject to final material analysis.Revenue generation has become a focal point. On January 30, 2026, Silver Bullet Mines Corp. (TSXV: SBMI) (OTCQB: SBMCF) announced it had received its first payment for concentrate from its Arizona mining operations.

To read the full column, go to: https://bit.ly/4qvpogs

Sheldon Bennett says the future of his company lies not in abandoning crypto, but in redefining what a power-to-server business can become.In a wide-ranging interview with InvestorNews.com host Christopher Ecclestone, Bennett, CEO and Director of DMG Blockchain Solutions Inc. (TSXV: DMGI | OTCQB: DMGGF), described a company that began as a pure-play Bitcoin miner and is now positioning itself as an emerging player in artificial intelligence infrastructure, sovereign data centers, and what he characterizes as national “defense storage.”“Fundamentally, we take power and we put it into servers,” Bennett said. “That’s really what a Bitcoin miner does. And out of that power into servers, we get Bitcoin.” The shift to AI, he explained, is conceptually similar. “You put power into servers—just a different type, GPUs. And instead of getting Bitcoin out, we would get paid in fiat currency.”DMG, which calls itself “a sustainable, vertically integrated blockchain and data center technology company,” operates across two strategic pillars—Core and Core+—and owns a digital asset custody subsidiary, Systemic Trust Corporation, in Alberta. Bennett noted that DMG was “actually the first Bitcoin miner to be listed in Canada,” and that the company is approaching its 10-year anniversary after spending “the last eight years or so… very strongly on Bitcoin mining.”That history has come with volatility. “Crypto is a very volatile asset in many different ways,” Bennett said. “The ups have been great, the downs have been tough.” He put the company’s current market capitalization at “somewhere around $50 million,” compared with a peak of “about $500 million.” At one point, he added, “we used to… be a $5 stock.”The financial results released December 18, 2025, reflect operational growth. Full-year 2025 revenue rose 40% to $47.3 million from $33.9 million in 2024. Cash flow from operations increased 97% to $16.2 million. Year-end cash, short-term investments and digital assets reached $65.2 million, up 81% from the prior year. The company mined 344 bitcoin during the year and ended with 342 bitcoin on its balance sheet. Net loss was $10.3 million, while comprehensive income rose to $11.3 million.“In 2025, we positioned the Company to enter the high-value Artificial Intelligence (AI) infrastructure market,” Bennett said in the release, adding that DMG cultivated relationships with “the Canadian government, enterprises and Indigenous communities to capture unique sovereign AI opportunities.”In the interview, he framed the pivot as a deliberate effort to diversify revenue streams. “Part of our goal getting into the AI data center business is to decouple ourselves from just moving with Bitcoin,” he said. “So we have revenue and assets that are decoupled from Bitcoin.”The vehicle for that repositioning will be a new operating focus under the banner of DMG Infrastructure. “We will spend more time in 2026 talking about DMG Infrastructure versus DMG Blockchain,” Bennett said. AI data center assets will move under that structure, while blockchain-specific assets remain within DMG Blockchain. “Blockchain-specific assets and business will stay in DMG Blockchain. AI data center–specific assets and operations will be in DMG Infrastructure.”The name itself, he acknowledged, reflects an earlier era. “When we went public, our bankers said… ‘blockchain’s hot. You’ve got to put the word blockchain in.’” Now, he said, there has been “discussion of should we just take the blockchain out and be more general,” though the current plan is to emphasize DMG Infrastructure without immediately renaming the parent company.To read the full column, go to: https://bit.ly/4acVR6n

A newly renamed junior explorer is preparing to test a drill-ready copper-gold target in British Columbia’s Golden Triangle after completing a corporate restructuring and publishing a new technical report. In an interview with InvestorNews.com host Tracy Hughes, Kevin Keough, CEO and Director of Oreterra Metals Corp. (TSXV: OTMC), said the company’s rebranding reflects a reset in both identity and strategy following its emergence from Romios Gold Resources Inc..“The name itself actually just emerged from a process we ran with the directors to really come up with a name that would represent the new company and the new direction,” Keough said. He noted that Romios “had been around for many years” and held “exceptionally good assets,” but also faced “corporate issues.” Keough said he became involved in June of last year “mainly because of the strength of its assets,” and that the company has since undergone “a major restructuring process over the last seven months or so,” formally re-emerging as Oreterra on February 2.Keough said the company is now positioned to focus on exploration at Trek South, a porphyry copper-gold target that he described as “a completely new porphyry copper-gold target” and “never drilled.” He emphasized that the target has only taken shape in recent years, saying it “really only emerged as a very thought-out target since COVID.” He framed Trek South as a discovery-driven opportunity, adding, “That can only come from a discovery of merit—I mean, a really significant discovery.”Drawing on past experience, Keough said he had previously delivered discoveries “in the same general area of the world that Oreterra is presently active in,” referencing the Saddle North discovery that led to the development of GT Gold. “It paid off with GT Gold big time,” he said, adding, “We think that this new target, Trek South, could also pay off big time.” He said the company decided the target was “strong enough” to warrant focusing “all our assets on” it during the upcoming field season.Keough said Oreterra plans to replicate the exploration approach used at Saddle North, describing it as a “disciplined discovery-driven model.” He explained that porphyry copper-gold systems “tend to be very big,” with “fairly consistently distributed” mineralization compared with high-grade vein systems. Because of that consistency and scale, he said, they “typically require a much lower density of drilling to deliver resources.” At Trek South, Oreterra intends to use “relatively wide-spaced holes,” laid out in “fences of holes—each hole roughly 200 metres apart,” which he said “indicates the scale of a target.”The company recently completed a National Instrument 43-101 technical report for the Trek property, which Keough said was commissioned to give shareholders and potential investors confidence. “We decided to do it because we want to provide potential investors and our shareholders—existing shareholders—with confidence that what we’re proposing to do at Trek, and the property itself, is really worth the effort,” he said. He added that the report shows “a lot of geoscience backing up this target,” and described Trek South as “actually the best copper-gold porphyry prospect I’ve seen in my career,” citing its surface exposure as “superior to most in British Columbia.”Keough confirmed that Oreterra will be exhibiting at Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada Convention, saying the company will have a booth at the event after missing a booth at Roundup due to the timing of the name change. Looking ahead, he said near-term activity will focus on preparing for the summer drilling season in British Columbia, noting that demand for drillers and helicopter support is already high. “It’s all underway right now,” he said, adding that a financing is planned “very shortly” to fund the Trek South program.To read the full column, go to: https://bit.ly/3MBPznD

Cesium remains one of the least discussed but most constrained materials in the critical minerals universe, and that scarcity is now shaping the near-term focus of Grid Metals Corp. (TSXV: GRDM | OTCQB: MSMGF) as it advances a near-surface cesium discovery in southeastern Manitoba.“Our company is a Canadian junior exploration company based in Toronto, with operations in Manitoba,” said Robin Dunbar, President, CEO & Director of Grid Metals, in an interview with InvestorNews.com host Jack Lifton. Dunbar said the company made a strategic decision last fall to concentrate its efforts on a cesium project located about an hour from Winnipeg and directly accessible from the Trans-Canada Highway.“We’ve just completed our second round of drilling there, which we started in October, and we’re on our third now,” Dunbar said, referring to exploration at Grid’s Falcon West Property. The company has reported drill results defining a near-surface zone of cesium mineralization hosted in pollucite. “We hope to define that deposit and then bring it to market as quickly as possible, with as short a timeline as possible,” he said.Dunbar described cesium as both rare and strategically constrained. “We’re primarily focused on cesium because we believe that it is a critical metal and it’s in short supply with a lack of feedstock globally,” he said, adding that supply is “mostly controlled by the Chinese,” while North American markets continue to seek domestic sources. Grid’s drilling has targeted pollucite mineralization that can host very high cesium grades. “We’re drilling a pollucite mineralization which can host up to 40% cesium,” Dunbar said. “We’ve had some very high-grade hits and it’s very near surface.”Recent results released by the company support those statements. In February 2026, Grid reported high-grade cesium intercepts at the Lucy South pegmatite within Falcon West, including 12.5 metres grading 5.2% Cs₂O with an internal interval of 3.0 metres at 20.5% Cs₂O. The mineralization has been defined over an initial area of approximately 100 metres by 30 metres and remains open in multiple directions. A Phase 2 drill program has commenced to expand and infill known intersections.Dunbar emphasized that cesium’s processing characteristics differentiate it from many other critical minerals. “The great thing about cesium is when you do go to process it, you can make a saleable concentrate by crushing and ore sorting the rock,” he said. “So you don’t need extensive infrastructure or tailings. So the permitting process will be much shorter, and Manitoba is a very good jurisdiction to bring a project in.”Lifton underscored Canada’s position in the global cesium market, noting that Manitoba has historically been central to supply. He also pointed to the simplicity of processing and the absence of toxic byproducts. Dunbar confirmed Grid’s familiarity with existing operations in the province. “We’ve actually had a lot of interaction with the people at the Tanco mine over the years,” he said, adding that ore sorting allows separation of cesium and lithium into saleable streams with limited capital intensity.Market interest has begun to surface, Dunbar said, though the company’s near-term emphasis remains on defining tonnage and continuity. “Everything that we see from the market side is that there is a near-term shortage of ore,” he said. “We think there’s a window here for a company that can come to market with material.” He added: “The more material that we have, the more we can define, the more options I think we’ll have.”Dunbar said Grid has had contact with Canadian federal authorities regarding critical minerals, and described the questions he is hearing as resource-driven. “Will you have a resource, and how much will you have, and when will you have it?” he said.To read the full column, go to: https://bit.ly/4bNIAlW

Since listing in April, Allied Critical Metals Inc. (CSE: ACM | OTCQB: ACMIF) has been advancing a redevelopment timeline that few Western tungsten projects can credibly outline, centered on the past-producing Borralha Tungsten Project in northern Portugal and framed by an explicit goal of entering production as early as 2026.“Let’s start with the deposit that makes everything possible,” said Roy Bonnell, CEO & Director of Allied, in an interview with InvestorNews.com host Tracy Hughes. “It’s a brownfield deposit in the north of Portugal with infrastructure second to none in place and a government that’s motivated in this geopolitical world we all live in to assist us into getting into production as soon as we possibly can.”The company’s stated production timeline is anchored to a pilot-scale processing facility. Bonnell said Allied expects to reach production “nine months after financing of our smaller… pilot plant,” adding that this could occur in 2026. He attributed the company’s access to capital not only to management experience but also to market conditions. “There’s lots of assistance and there’s lots of private capital out there that wants to be part of that growing industry,” he said, referencing what he described as a broader Western effort to increase autonomy in critical metals.Operationally, Allied has initiated a fully funded 20,000-metre drilling program at Borralha, launched in January 2026. “There are drills on the property right now,” Bonnell said, noting that activity is expected to scale to four drills by March and continue through much of the year. The program is designed to support infill drilling, test extensions of known zones, and pursue new discoveries. “There’ll be some new discoveries as well that we hope to achieve in 2026,” he said.Borralha’s history as a producing mine has informed Allied’s exploration strategy. Rather than focusing solely on the underground vein systems historically mined, the company has targeted breccia zones that were largely overlooked by previous operators. “Rather than follow the underground veins that were being mined for 80 years, we went to drill the breccia,” Bonnell explained. “That’s the reason we’ve had some spectacular results, including what we think are some of the best intercepts ever drilled for tungsten.”Permitting has progressed alongside exploration. Allied recently received environmental approval for Borralha, which Bonnell said benefited from the project’s brownfield status and local support. “We had great social acceptability of our project, and that obviously expedited our environmental permitting,” he said, adding that the region’s mining history and government engagement played a role.The next major milestone is a Preliminary Economic Assessment, which Bonnell said is expected before the start of the PDAC convention in March. “Obviously, our goal is to have that PEA out this coming month,” he said.Portugal’s role in Allied’s development strategy features prominently in the company’s planning. Bonnell described the country as “a NATO country… an EU country… with first world infrastructure,” highlighting Borralha’s proximity to Porto’s deep-water port and nearby hydroelectric power. “A lot of these other projects that are racing with us to get into production in tungsten have to build out their infrastructure,” he said. “We have world-class infrastructure already constructed for us.”Government engagement extends beyond permitting. Bonnell said Allied has been in discussions with Portuguese defense authorities and development institutions. “We’ve already announced that we’ve been talking to ID Defense Portugal and we’ve been named a project of national interest,” he said, adding that the company is also engaging with private offtakers in Europe and the United States.To read the full column, go to: https://bit.ly/4ckyJnG